“Harlan!” his mother protested. “You oughtn’t to speak like that! Why, mother couldn’t any more have thought of such a thing, when Dan was already married——” “She died hoping it,” Harlan insisted. “I tell you——” Mr. Oliphant interrupted. “That seems to me about as far-fetched an idea as I’ve often heard, Harlan.” “Does it, sir? Didn’t you ever hear grandmother express her opinion of Lena?” “Somewhat frequently.” “Did you ever hear her mention her conviction that Lena was entirely mercenary and married Dan because she thought he was rich?” “She talked that way sometimes—yes.” “And didn’t Lena just show us she thinks that’s what the will means, herself?” “Possibly,” Mr. Oliphant admitted. “But that doesn’t prove——” “You might just read over that document of grandma’s again,” Harlan suggested. “She appears to leave me everything and Dan nothing, but gives mother a very comfortable living income, and she knew mother will take care of him when he needs it. What’s most significant, she provides that mother can leave the principal to any one she pleases. Don’t you suppose grandma knew it will naturally come to Dan eventually? She’s really taken care of him, and at the same time made it appear that he’s cut off with this thirty-five hundred dollars that’ll last him about a minute. She did it because she hoped Lena would leave him and get a divorce.” “No, no!” Mrs. Oliphant cried out. “Mother wouldn’t have had such a wicked thought. She had the strictest ideas about morality I ever——” “Yes, she did,” Harlan agreed. “Yet that’s just what she planned. You may not see it, but it’s as plain to me as if she had written it in her will. And there’s something more than that in it, too.” “What is it?” Mr. Oliphant inquired skeptically. “What is the something more that’s hidden from every eye but yours?” Harlan reddened and failed to reply at once;—then he said with a reluctant humour: “I’m afraid she’s played it rather low down on me, sir.” “What!” Mr. Oliphant stared at him. “You call leaving you five or six hundred thousand dollars playing it rather low down?” “You’d say it’s a fantastic view, would you, sir?” “Yes, I believe I should—considerably!” “Maybe so,” Harlan said. “Yet there seems some ground for it. Grandma knew—that is, I mean she thought—she thought that I had certain hopes about Martha myself, and she told me pretty plainly I’d better keep out of the way. Well, she’s put me in a fine light before Martha, hasn’t she? Here’s Dan, all his life supposed to be the favourite, with great expectations, and now he’s cut off with a shilling, and I get it all! In the eyes of a sympathetic woman who’s always liked him best anyhow, isn’t he the suffering hero, and don’t I play the rôle of the brother that undermined him and supplanted him?” “That’s nonsense,” his father said a little irritably. “You don’t suppose your grandmother deliberately——”